Explore public funding of private education, special education or otherwise, in a poem, short story, or essay. When and how might it work? When and how might it go wrong? Is there a moral obligation to provide or not provide such an opportunity? You can use this article from NPR as a starting point. Remember, you can post your writing to our comments section!
Archive for June, 2009
Writing Prompt 6/23/09
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009Site Maintenance & Redesign in July
Sunday, June 21st, 2009The Externalist will be down for at least one weekend during the first week of July for site maintenance and redesign. While we hate to bring the site down, we’re confident that our readers will appreciate our new format and some new features. Beginning in August, we will no longer be publishing formal issues. Instead, we’ll be posting new content over time and including only selected pieces in a .pdf edition that will carry the best of the most recent three months. One annual .pdf will include content that hasn’t appeared on our web site as well. We’re also looking at more blogs, a new web forum, and a directory of anyone that has ever appeared in The Externalist. Do you have ideas for making The Externalist even better? Is there something you want to see that you haven’t yet? Tell us about it with an email to editor@theexternalist.com or just post a comment here.
Note: Due to excessive comment spam, all comments must be approved before appearing on the site. This can take up to 48 hours, though I try to get to them much sooner than that. Thanks for your patience!
Writing Prompt 6/20/09
Sunday, June 21st, 2009Consider how an end to Iranian theocracy might affect you personally, wherever u are. Read this article for inspiration or just to be informed: http://tinyurl.com/l4gzyu.
Feel free to post your practice in our comments section (Note: due to excessive spam, all comments must be approved. This can take up 48 hours.)
Externalist Writing Prompt 6/15/2009
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009Write a story about a futuristic leadership campaign that uses only the Internet. For more info, visit this news article about the opposition campaign and protest mechanisms in Iran: http://tinyurl.com/lfoe62. The article is worth the read even if you don’t use the prompt. If you do use the prompt, feel free to post a portion of your story in the comments section.
All Externalist writing prompts appear first on Twitter.
Externalist Writing Prompt 6/14/2009
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009Write a story or poem about the National Health Care Day of Service. You can post your work as a comment.
Writing prompts are posted first to http://twitter.com/TheExternalist. We’ll post three or four a week using current events.
Join us on Twitter
Thursday, June 11th, 2009The Externalist is now on Twitter! Join us there. We’ll be tweeting contributor announcements, news from The Externalist, and maybe some news-based writing prompts.
If you’re interested, you can also follow my personal Twitter account. I tweet about writing opportunities, readings and events, and so on and so forth.
See you there!
Weekly Book Recommendation: June 10, 2009
Thursday, June 11th, 2009A couple years ago, I stumbled upon an author that I’d never heard of, but in such a way that I knew I should know who he was. That is to say, a movie trailer specifically gave his name which happens so rarely with any author short of Stephen King or John Grisham that I was actually surprised by the inclusion (pleasantly surprised as authors get little enough attention in an A.D.D. culture already). After seeing the movie which made me laugh harder than I’d laughed in a long time, I decided to do a little research on this author, after which point I promptly went to the bookstore and purchased four of his titles. What can I say? I was feeling brazen.
The first of the books from this small stack that I read was Neverwhere. I started the book at 5:30 pm. I finished it just after 11 that same night. I knew from page 2 that I hadn’t wasted my money. Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere is deceptively easy to read. The style is suitable for a 5th grader, but the book itself serves as an extended commentary on urban culture and the financial-success-based mentality that has overcome much of the west. The world for people who have fallen between the cracks is both frightening and strangely appealing. And when you’re done reading Neverwhere and are ready for something even more thought-provoking and a little less “fun,” I also highly recommend American Gods, the first book in a long time to cross genres multiple times within its pages, still win a multitude of awards, and perhaps most surprisingly, to have deserved them all.
Weekly Book Recommendation: June 3, 2009
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009The news seems packed with stories of violence and despair among families these days. Poverty creates problems like these, builds an environment of fear that seeps into everything around it. My generation has never seen such a deep economic crisis with double-digit unemployment rates and constant foreclosures. Literature can offer us some insights, especially well-written literature grounded in intense and accurate research. This week’s book recommendation, No Promises in the Wind by Irene Hunt, is intended for a younger audience, but is well worth the read of us adults, too. Thoughtful reading!